jaro gruber ;-)

BMW abfindung aka compensation payment ;-)

2026-10-18T23:57:25.450+02:00

heaven & hell! on friday, october 9th, 2026 BMW headquaters offered an ABFINDUNG (= compensation payment) for almost all employees in administrative and others not directly to production linked functions like IT or product development. since then, the internet is full of AI generated pictures & cartoons about that issue with servers breaking down, employees fleeing as fast as they can, BMW headquarters burning down and the like ... a huuuge mess, of course ...

well, i've signed a contract started october 1st recently, which means i've to work 3 more years, get paid 6 years a reduced but still a nice salary and retire from BMW after 30 years (it is called altersteilzeit / ATZ in german). what does it mean? i did not get an offer for compensation payment and thus cannot leave with pockets full of money immediately or early next year 😭

well, in order to digest that disappointment, i've spend a day like if i got all that abfindung money today. anyway, i'm happy to go tomorrow morning into my office, meet my nice colleagues, drink a coffee 🍵, work, go to lunch into the company canteen, drink some more coffee, work again 😄

if all that abfindung insanity is over, i'll publish some more details like how many actually left the company due to that programm to keep you updated, shouldnt i? (of course, i'll wait till this is a public knowledge and not any kind of speculation or secret internal data 😎)

till then enjoy few imho funny pictures

BMW abfindung ~ an advisor book how to live

in never ending wealth and abundance

with a beanie?

or without?

lunch time

the internet is full of stuff like that ...

rescue boats? btw, do you see anyone paddling out there? 😁

more coming soon or never ...

eof

latschenkopf 1712m, BY

2026-10-03T22:48:00.000+02:00

a really, really nice hiking tour with family to the brauneck-latschenkopf-1712m close to lenggries.

.. coming soon ...

idealhang = my favorite downhill ski track when on brauneck / lenggries

what a beautiful inversion out there below us

came this lama from peru? what do you think?

more pictures later here

oktoberfest

2026-10-01T22:58:00.000+02:00

oktoberfest? this i've been twice, with my father and with my colleagues ,,, and managed also to climb up all the stairs at the church tower to see the quite nice sunset over munich

more pictures also from previous years here:

kampenwand, 1669m, BY

2026-09-27T22:34:00.000+02:00

kampenwand 1669m with my father ... ... COMING SOON ...

my last visit 1n 2025 here

more pictures here

lake chiemsee

2026-09-20T22:27:00.000+02:00

lake chiemsee, castle herrenchiemse at an island herreninsel (men isand) in the lake chiemsee, fraueninsel (women island), ship trip, king ludwig II, ... a really really nice day trip from munich

... more coming soon ...

more pictures later here

more bavarian lakes here

sachsenklemme, südtirol, IT

2026-08-30T22:55:00.000+02:00

as every august in the last few years, my wife taught a seminar for teachers in the neustift abbey in south tirol. this time i was quite sick after my journey to peru, so i just drove her there on sunday and came back after 1 week for only 2 more days ... anyway, i could visit some well known and beloved places like the lake völser weiher below the schlern mountain, the beergarden + restaurant brückenwirt in neustift, the silence area at the small hill in natz .... and yes, i#ve had a lot time out there. i've even got a sunburn as i've waited 3 or 4 hours for my wife meanwhile in shadow and in sun listening to a martin armstrong interview about geopolitics + financial markets in natz ...

before our 3h drive home we have stopped for lunch at the hotel & restaurant sachsenklemme in their new and modern AH brewery (andreas hofer brewery) in the village franzenfeste located directly at the highway + the eisack river (isarco), so lets show ya few pictures from there, okay? 😉

hotel & restaurant sachsenklemme in franzenfeste (fortezza), IT

btw, why sachsenklemme (saxons wedge)? well, for some strange reason, the saxons fought against the tiroleans thousand miles from home and yes, the tiroleans locked the saxons in the slim valley at the eisack river and throve huge stones from the hill on them. not nice at all, is it?

kloster neustift ~ neustift abbey, south tirol, IT

the beautiful library in the monastery

basilica

bible hall ~ an intuition seminar by the best of all wives 😃

castle engelsburg, neustift abbey

kloster neustift ~ neustift abbey, south tirol, IT

lake völser weiher below the schlern mountain

there is some silence / rest area at the end of village natz

here i've got that sunburn, my dears 🌞

we were visiting friends in natz

denken ist wie googeln, nur krasser 😂

hotel & restaurant sachsenklemme in franzenfeste (fortezza), IT

on the road home somewhere in tirol, austria, AT

very few more pictures here

peru 2026

2026-08-11T03:49:33.000+02:00

condors at the view point mirador cruz del condor

at 3,800m in the colca canyon

inca trail dance 💕

as often at journeys, lets share my notes made during our 21-day trip with the djoser travel agency + pictures made mostly by my fellow travellers from our two whatsapp-photos-groups 🤓

peru, PE is a huge country with almost 1.3m km2 (20th-largest in the world and 3rd in south america), has 35m inhabitants + density of approx 26 people per km2

population: 60% mestizos = descendants of mixed european and indigenous ancestry, 26% indigenous people (mostly inca descandants and aymara in the andes + maybe 50 smaller groups in the amazonas lowlands), 6% of european origin, 3.5% african origin, 1.2% asian origin (mostly chinese + japanese, like the just few days ago elected right wing president ms. fujimori)

languages spanish, quechua (incas), aymara + english in tourist destinations

3 major areas: the coast, the andes highlands with highest peak huascaran 6,768m + the tiny populated amazonas region (60% of the land and 12% of the population)

capital lima: 11m inhabitants, in 1535 demonstratively built by spanish conqueror francisco pizzaro on the ruins of destroyed inca city, few unesco heritage buildings in the city center. btw, due to big waves it was quite difficult to swim in the pacific ocean there => probably more suitable for surfers 😉

independance from spain 1821 (argentina's san martin) + 1824 (venezuela's simon bolivar)

money: peruvian sol, 1 EUR = 4 SOL when changed at the bank / office / official dealers in the streets. 1 EUR = 3.85 SOL is the official exchange rate and your credit card rate when booked in SOL. 1 EUR = 3.45 SOL when by mistake chosen currency conversion at the ATM, 1 EUR = 3.65 SOL if the credit card invoice was booked in EUR => its up to you and your luck in the moment of payment 😀

after in lima for the 1st time, i could again swim on two days in the pacific ocean in paracas, close to pisco. this city is famous for pisco sour or maracuja sour, the cocktail made with some local grapes booz. yes, due to el nino has the water 22°C temperature which is +5°C above average and much much warmer then i would expect

panamericana, the longest road / higway in the world. unfortunately often surrounded by tons of mostly plastic waste + shredded car tires

my daugher + me played a strategy cards game similar to monopoly and on top had to solve logical brain twisters taken from one out of her 3 fat mathematics books during our often much to looooong bus trips. wanna try out 3 of them?

#1 we have 100 tigers + 1 sheep. if a tiger eats the sheep, it will metamorphose into a sheep itself. if the tiger knows, it will survive, it will eat the sheep => WILL THE SHEEP SURVIVE? a hint? start small with 1 sheep and only one, two and three tigers 🐅 and scale up later => easy!
#2 we have 12 equal looking balls, one of them is heavier or lighter than the others and we have an old fashioned scale with 2 cups. you can weight these balls 3x and have to say, which one is different + whether it is heavier or lighter than the others => really difficult! i just could say which ball is different, but not whether heavier than the other 11. to fully solve it i would need a) more time b) the sample solution c) both 👀
#3 we have 100 men in a circle and the #1 has a knife. he kills the #2, so the #3 takes the knife and kills the #4. then #5 takes the knife and kills the #6 ... which number solely survives after few rounds of this strange men's game? => easy!

ugly desert between the pacific ocean and the andes. btw, due to a sand storm, we had to cancel the 1st day of our sightseeing tour at the paracas peninsula

paracas - swimming in the hot pacific ocean, boat tour into an ocean NP wih sea lions and many many birds (pelicans, cormorans, humbold pinguins, inca seagulls, gannets (tölpel), red head condors, ...). it is a region where it almost never rains, maybe just every few years. why? it is due to the cold humbold stream from the antarctica in the ocean, the high andes mountains which block the rain from amazonas region and some winds (el nino?)

nazca / nasca lines starting 800 years B.C. in the desert earth. maria reiche museum (she was a german scientist from dresden and has discovered + protected the lines for decades). ancient up to 2,000 years old nasca graves with mumies, ancient water conduits (wasserleitungen) with small fish inside. the nasca culture was the successor of the paracas culture

nasca is in the ica province. the major source of income here are mining (Cu, Fe, Au, Ag), tourism (nasca city only?) and agriculture as at some places it rains 2-3 months in a year, but only 1-2 hours per week (really?)

the people in peru are generally smaller, thus the beds are often too short (1.80m) and the pissoirs too low 😀

now we're finally going to leave the coastal area, my dears 🍀

arequipa, 2,335m, the 1.5m inhabitants large unesco heritage city with beautiful palaces + churches + restaurants. great rafting adventure at the chili river. nice post office experience when a local guy helped me to find the office even if it was just partially on his way. due to some minor holiday it was closed, but the security guard out there opened the door anyway + dropped my 2 already franked cards into the post box => s.th. like that would not be possible in germany, would it?

interoceanica, the road between pacific + atlantic oceans is part of the new chinese silk road through peru, bolivia and brasil. there is also an one line railroad with almost no rail traffic next to it. maybe even more trucks than at the panamericana... pampa with dry + yellow grass lands often above 4,000m high with some cactus 🌵 + bushes + very few trees and many lamas + alpacas + vicunas + guanacos = the 4 camelios 🦙 south americas, where the last two, vicunas + guanacos, are (still) wild. quite many lagunes with water birds like ducks, flamingos, black ibis, seagulls and also few rivers/creeks with or without water. some agriculture (lamas, alpacas, cattle, sheep, quinoa, corn, oats + other grains and many different local potatoes types, vegetables, ...). btw, the same waste beside the road like at panamericana => any significant improvement would be a question of culture + education, isnt it? 😏

the colca canyon which is double as deep as the grand canyon in arizona (usa) with condors 🦅 + eagles, falcons + nice short hiking tour + thermal springs bath + ice cold nights with frozen water puddles (pfützen) in the morning in our hotel at about 3,600m

the ugly city of puno (3,830m) at the huge lake titicaca (3,812m above sea level). the swimming yellow reed grass homes of the indigenous uros culture, 1 night at the amantani island with 4,000 inhabitants in the homes of quechua speaking culture and by huuuge luck on that day with local communities celebration with music + dance + beer + fire. the 2nd day visit on the smaller taquile island with 2,000 inhabitants. here i was swimming in the titicaca lake for 3 or 4 minutes 😍. we have'd a hiking tour on both islands. the 300m hight meters covering sunset hiking tour to the pre-inca time pachatata (father earth) temple at 4,150m at the amantani island was more than difficult. there was the pachamama (mother earth) temple at the a little bit higher twin peak as well, my dears. btw, both islands are to 100% terrace fields agriculture land, there is no forest or any waste land left today. they have few passion fruit + pine trees, bushes, flowers and eukalyptus trees (imported from australia) growing on mostly bald mountains

inca trail - inka trail - our 4 days and 42km long hiking adventure at the eastern, rainy + green side of the andes 🌴. well, that means many many many steps on stone stairs + coca tea + coca leaves + many beautiful inca ruins with all their terraces, walls + remainings of buildings down the road. our highest point here was the dead woman's pass at 4,215m. we've been a group of 11 tourists (besides my daughter & me there was a group of 7 funny and dance-crazy spanish people from barcelona at my daughter's age and 2 german guys 10 years younger than me) + 2 young peruvian guides + 1 cook + 13 porters. well, the porters have'd the lowest pay and at the same time the hardest job carrying all the tents + food + kitchen + some luggage for our fellow travellers who new in advance that there exist such a possibility. it is sooooo sad that our society does not value hard work + fairness, but rather appreciates some special skills or special positions/roles, which of course change over centuries 😇. there were no soccer players and rock stars in the inca culture, isnt it? as a grop, we've spent wonderful 4 days in the beautiful andes mountains

machu picchu - the holy city of the incas in the jungle at 2,400m - unesco heritage, built by inca king pachakuteq around 1450 in geographically extremely difficult place. for the western world discovered by the american hiram bingham in 1911. even before it was visited (and all treasures looted) by local people, by the german albert giesecke, by one cusco native peruvian explorer who (besides others before him) left a graffiti on some walls what bingham found and deleted before making a picture😁 ... anyway, the picture was found/published few years before 1911, so bingham accepted not to be the 1st 'modern times' guy out there, especially because that cusco guy accidentally died in the river below the city and was no longer a competitor. what does it mean? mr. bingham and his team of scientists + archeologists found just some ceramics, (mumies?), stones, but no gold and silver except one golden forearm bracer besides the paths leading to/from the holy site which most likely lost some local or foreign looters

the unesco heritage city of cusco 3,399m, built on previous inca city - churches, churches, churches and stone paved squares

anything else? it is dark at 6 p.m., many tuk tuk taxis in the cities, many by earthquakes destroyed buildings, few quite easy to hike 6,000+ m high mountains, the highest point of our journey was the 4,910m high pass and viewpoint 'mirador de volcanos' in the colca canyon, tropical fruits + juices at the markets and restaurants, coca leaves all over the country, you can eat ceviche (sour made raw fish) + guinea pigs + alpacas, when you think you have to, traditional clothed people in the highlands + also the most souvenir sellers, quipus rope scripture of the incas, sooooo much bureaucracy (you need your passport to enter the macchu picchu site, you need it again when travelling by domestic railroad --> they've controlled 3 times (!!!) i.e. in front of the rail station + in the line for the trains + when entering the train. many of my mining investments, mostly canadian + american companies have operations in peru (Cu, Au, Ag, ), ... but i also own few shares aka ADRs of the huge peruvian 'compania de mines buenaventura', which is one of the biggest silver producers worldwide, as they are listed at NYSE.

is peru a beautiful country? not really, if you asked me. all the way from lima to cusco there were mostly grey & brown lands + dusty deserts, ugly cities with overwhelming number of not finished / painted houses (due to poverty or the frequent earthquakes?), dry + boring pampa yellow grasslands surrounded by naked mountains, plastic waste almost everywhere. of course, there are also beautiful spots like the city of arequipa, colca canyon, lake titicaca, inca trail, machu picchu, but there were too many long & boring bus transfers between these hot spots, you know?

enjoy pictures made mostly by my kind fellow co-travellers taken out of our 2 whatsapp-photo-groups. #picturesarenicerthantherealworld, arent they? 😂

map of our round trip + lima

city of cusco

inca site at the hill above cusco ~ look at the earthquake stable

stone lizard example. the tail continues around the left corner

cusco

me, a little bit ill => teeth + ears + common cold

inca trail - comina inka => 42 km, 4 days, 4,000m high => stairs, stairs, stairs 😇

some inca site ruins

this is how the old real inca trail looked like, if you asked me.

not the 'highway' built by archeologists at some other places😆

one of the few really steep parts of the inca trail

all of us, our spanish-dutch-german-group 💖

inca trail = stairs + stairs +stairs 🙈

one of our base camps UP the road ...

inca ruins

one of our porters, thx 🙏

the nicest camp site at the whole trail ~ we didnt stop but moved to the

next one, so we could pass the following steepest stairs down at daylight

inca site ruins

some orchids, if you asked me

finally jungle ~ we're at the east side of the andes (amazonas)

the only approx 500 years old machu picchu inca site / inca city

some strange tourists' ritual? 😂

the famous inka site machupicchu, unesco heritage ...

the famous view at the inca city machu picchu, unesco heritage

machu picchu BEFORE western discovery and robbery

perurail - once in a lifetime horror?

inca ruins

who's on the top? it was probably the highest point (5,050 - 5,100m)

of the other groups' hike to rainbow mountain & red valley

the red vallye ~ valle rojo, the andes close to cusco

the rainbow mountain, the andes close to cusco

some tourists posing at the rainbow mountain?

mirador lagunillas 4,413m, close to puno

lake titicaca, 3,812m, taquile island

is that really me?

lake titicaca, amantani island

pacha tata pre-inca site at amantani island at 4,100m

lake titicaca, amantani island

some (dry) island / peninsula at lake titicaca

the uros indigenious culture

lake titicaca in puno

our local travel guide olga (titicaca)

condor (heaven) + puma (earth) + snake (underground)

city of puno

city of puno, lake titicaca

an old church close to the inca site raqchi

inca site raqchi

the cactus drink

our local travel guide victor (colca canyon)

the colca canyon

mr. rabbit

mr. condor

condor family

colca river + thermal springs in the colca canyon

domestic lamas. the alpacas have hairy faces😉

(wild) vicuna

city of arequipa + the (misti?) volcano💓

gold? peru was 2025 the #9 among the gold producers (china the #1)

mr. colibri

one of the nicer hotels at our stay. was it in pisco?

the panamericana road

nasca, unesco cultural heritage

2,000 years old graves in nasca

the oasis huacachina

our nice hotel direct at the lake

few of us at the sand dunes slightly before sunset

me @ the oasis huacachina

beach in paracas

paracas

some birds' reserve in the the pacific ocean

see lions

old city center of lima, unesco heritage

the ford T inside the old hotel (simon bolivar?) in lima

the beach in lima

there is no metro in lima => the fast 'express' bus line

wanna even more pictures? you are welcome, here we go😀

allgäu, bavaria, BY

2026-07-19T00:15:00.000+02:00

the alp hills region allgäu in bavaria (BY) is really, really nice, too. on our way to the weekend in the lechtal valley in tirol, austria we've just stopped for a dinner and few short pictures breaks on the road. why just sooo short? well, it was quite late on friday evening at it was haevy raining on sunday morning, my dears

approaching the city of füssen from southwest

lake forggensee filled by the lech river

lake weissensee

stegmühle = a short break for dinner in the bavarian province 😄

more coming soon (in the rainy autumn weeks at the end of the year 2026?) or never ...

two valleys: lechtal + tannheimer tal in tirol, austria, AT

2026-07-18T23:51:00.000+02:00

what a nice weekend with our former neighbors in tirol, austria, AT. for some strange reason we have booked the hotel black eagle 'schwarzer adler' in a wrong place called tannheim instead of the black eagle in hägerau and were some 40 minutes away by car. it did not make any harm to our common holidays. we've joined the group for a hiking tour, swimming in the waterfall (hägerauer wasserfall) close to the lech river and for barbecue after that and went home late at night.

thus we've seen not just the lechtal valley (~ canyoning 2023), but also the similar beautiful valley tannheimer tal with the small lake haldensee .. just could not visit the nearby lake vilsalpsee as both roads to it were closed. well, it was raining at that time, so we did not try to find out why are they closed and how would the right approach aka entry look like ...

tannheim, hägerau, häselgehr, gramais (here we have had our 2h easy lechiweg hiking tour with children and 2 dogs ...

gramais, AT

hägerau, lechtal, tirol, AT

3D painting in the lechtal valley

the lech river and the waterfall hägarauer wasserfall, AT

many of us were bathing in the waterfall 🐋

hägerau

tirol

... at our hiking tour 'lechiweg' in gramais

the starting point of hiking tour 'lechiweg' in gramais

~~~

tannheim, tannheimer tal, tirol AT

our hotel black eagle (schwarzer adler) in tannheim, tannheimer tal, AT

more coming soon (in the rainy autumn weeks at the end of the year 2026?) or never ...

alte utting ~ a ship on a bridge (munich, BY)

2026-07-13T01:16:00.000+02:00

the ship 'alte utting' and the lake ammersee, a life span friends? not really, my dears 😄

the alte utting got after 66 years of duty (1950-2016) at the lake ammersee a new place for its retirement at a bridge in munich - sendling (in the lagerhaus street) and a new life as a bar, restaurant, beergarden 🍸🍕🍵🍻

the view from the top deck of the ship

the adjacent beergarden at alte utting

lake ammersee at riederau

lake ammersee at st. alban

lake ammersee at riederau, restaurant seehaus

lake ammersee

more bavarian lakes here 🐟

stop u.s. air base ramstein

2026-06-27T00:32:00.000+02:00

this year have 2 friends from munich + me again managed to come for a protest march against the u.s. military air base ✈ in ramstein, pfalz, germany => 3 days in the stopp ramstein peace camp in steinwenden + speaches in kaiserslautern + swimming in lake bärenlochweiher + ...

my dears, will there be a huuuuge war in europe soon? WW3 with the 'collective west' and its north atlantic terror alliance (NATO) against russia (+ its allies)? why do i ask and think so? well, if i want to go skiing, i wouldnt buy a bicycle. i would buy ski, isnt it? the west tries to arm its member states asap as they should invest 5% of their respective GDP in military (equipment); there is massive russophobia from the EU + NATO lands representatives (von der leyen, kallas, merz, macron, tusk, ...) and their small dirty mainstream media; the laughable fallen drone at the leipzig airport which didnt destroy anything and nobody knows who is responsible for it was a reason enough that the german government (!!!) accused russia for that really small and minuscule incident like if that would by a russian military attack on germany. btw, what reason & advantage whould there be for russia? nothing at all ... if they would destroy the taurus rockets & ammunition factories or the leopard-2 production sites, than i could see benefits for russia, but a small stupid drone in leipzig? there are so many private drones which crash somewhere in the fields & mountains each and every day ...

btw, what do you think, who was accused by the german government under the scholz administration after the nord stream 2 pipeline was blown up and thus the supply of cheap russian energy prevented? NO ONE! well, most likely because it was done / initiated by germany's official friend + occupation force, the usa, as the american pulitzer prize journalist seymour hersh published some time ago. yes, it is the same seymour hersh who exposed american massacre on civilians in my lai in 1968 (vietnam war) and abu ghraib torture scandal in 2004 aka the systemic abuse of iraqi prisoners by u.s. military personnel (iraq war) ... and yes, germany even didnt repaired that pipelines (3 out of 4 are destroyed, one still okay) and on top imposed american & EU sanctions on imports of russian oil + gas instead ...

other rhetorics in germany + german speaking countries? unfortunatelly, the german defense secretary pistorius introduced a new term 'war competent' (kriegstüchtig). if you asked me, our society needs to become 'peace competent' (friedenstüchtig) instead. why? because we are all the human family (menschheitsfamilie ~ a term established by the swiss historian dr. daniele ganser) and also because today's weapons a far too good and could easily destroy all human life in densely populated western europe, couldnt they?

even if we were less peace activists in ramstein like in the previous years, it was a really nice event => enjoy few pictures 😉

3 of us

ramstein peace camp in steinwenden

the night comes over our peace camp

ramstein train station

peace march from the railway station to the u.s. airbase

peace march to the u.s. air base ramstein

a stage for speeches + music in front of the airbase

swimming in the beautiful small lake bärenlochweiher

a piece of history 😇

there was a speech in kaiserslautern by gabriele krone-schmalz,

the former TV correspondent for russia + free journalist today

ramstein

... there are few u.s. businesses in ramstein, too

good-bye, ramstein

anything else? well, enjoy pictures + insights from my last ramstein visit in 2024

partnachklamm canyon, BY

2026-06-21T23:18:00.000+02:00

an easy 500 height meters hiking tour with my youngest daughter at 33°C in the partnachklamm = canyon of the partnach river in garmisch-partenkirchen, bavaria BY, germany

lunch break at the eckbauer alm cottage

more coming soon (in the rainy autumn weeks at the end of the year 2026?) or never ...

mikulov (nikolsburg), moravia, CZ

2026-06-13T00:28:00.000+02:00

class reunion after 39 year. this time in southern moravia part of czech republic in wineyards neighborhood in mikulov (nikolsburg)

wine tasting in a private local wine cellar

a synagogue in mikulov

mikulov castle

mikulov, city center

castle lednice, CZ

more coming soon (in the rainy autumn weeks at the end of the year 2026?) or never ...

bratislava, SK

2026-06-12T00:38:00.000+02:00

two days of mobile work + then few days in the czech republic + back to bratislava and a really really nice birthday party with family

bratislava

somewhere on the road to slovak-czech-border

more coming soon (in the rainy autumn weeks at the end of the year 2026?) or never ...

asch (Aš), CZ

2026-06-08T11:54:00.000+02:00

a short stop over to refuel cheap petrol and lunch in asch (as, Aš), northwestern czech republic. we have been here last year (2025) as well, my dears.

more coming soon or never

lake murner see, bavaria, BY

2026-06-08T00:09:00.000+02:00

lake murner see, bavaria, DE ... what a nice dinner + swimming in this beautiful lake 🐋

more bavarian lakes here

more coming soon (in the rainy autumn weeks at the end of the year 2026?) or never ...

castle kliczkow, lower silesia + lodz, central poland, PL

2026-05-30T23:58:00.000+02:00

what a beautiful stop over in the castle kliczkow (zamek kliczkow, schloss klitschdorf in niederschlesien polen) in lower silesia, polen

a wonderful castle hotel
lake jezioro blekytne in the pine woods
lodz
1 week of mobile work in ruda bugaj / alexandrow lodzki
village osada dwa mlyny (two mills) + the swamps / lakes at the river grabia
artificial lake zbiornik patyki
zgorzelec (görlitz), hotel / pension + restaurant in a museum like house kolodzeja (a 200 years old historical wood framed
Stellmacherhaus = wheel + cgariot maker house), which has been rescued + moved some 30-50 km + rebuilt as one and only house from a sacrificed village due to some industrial needs somewhere near bogatynia, PL (was it an open pit mine or an artificial lake what took place out there? the receptionist did not know exactly. who knows? or should i ask google gemini AI? ... yep, google knew ... it was the german village weigsdorf, which was destroyed because of brown coal open pit mine ...)

castle kliczkow (zamek kliczkow, schloss klitschdorf

lake jezioro blekytne, silesia, PL

osady dwa mlyny (two mills), lodz, central poland

lodz, PL

pensionat kolodzeja, zgorzelec, PL

more coming soon (maybe in the rainy autumn weeks at the end of the year 2026?) or never ...

lake talsperre bleiloch, saalburg, DE

2026-05-29T23:49:00.000+02:00

the hotel seeblick (lake view) in the small thuringian city of saalburg at the artificial lake talsperre bleiloch (= led hole lake. there was led mining in the nearby hills before) was our stay for 1 night at the way to poland. btw, it was quite difficult to come down to the lake and find a nice place for swimming out there .... and yes, we have been at that lake 3 years ago from a different side at the bistro 42 beach, but could not recognize anything we knew or remembered ... #bleilochtalsperre

hotel seeblick (lake view)

town hall in saalburg

the church in saalburg

what a nice timber framed houses out there

more coming soon (maybe in the rainy autumn weeks at the end of the year 2026?) or never ...

bergtierpark blindham, BY

2026-05-24T10:22:00.000+02:00

the bergtierpark blindham (BY, bavaria aka bayern, close to aying, which is maybe 35-40 minutes southeast of munich by car) is a childrens' play park and ZOO in the mountains ... nice for children to play, huge and free parking slots at the entry, you can spend all day here ... we have been enjoyed it already twice with our 3,5 years old grandson 💖

advice #1: they have just an EXTREMELY BAD food and drinks corner, unbelievable salty french fries + wienerwurst, noodles ... ueee ... => thus bring your own catering as there are plenty of places with tables inside the park where you can eat and drink your stuff ... just imagine, we are in bavaria and they even do not have a single wheat beer there => are they crazy? well, do not buy more than an ice cream there ...

advice #2: take the chariot at the entry (for currently 5 EUR per day). you can put all your backpacks, clothes, food + drinks and at the end also your child inside if it has no power to continue to the exit on its own legs, my dear parents + grandparents 😂

more coming soon (in the rainy autumn weeks at the end of the year 2026?) or never ...

gmünd in kärnten (austria, AT)

2026-05-17T11:07:00.000+02:00

what a nice stop-over for lunch on our way back from croatia + italy in gmünd in kärnten (carinthia) österreich (austria, AT). is is a BEAUTIFUL small medieval city close to the highway with an castle ruin + nice town square surrounded by both, (remainings of) city walls and the alp mountains ... soooo nice! and the food in austria is generally better taste and higher quality compared to germany's standards due to the overwhelming cheap-cheap-cheap attitude, you know?

on the way to istria / croatia we have slept in our favorite sauna & wellness establishment in a quite rundown hotel directly at the lake st. leonharder see in the city of villach / kärnten / AT. the restaurant + sauna + the nude bathing in the lake + the views at the surrounding snowy mountains are so great, that the quite old hotel rooms and the sooo ugly entry to the sauna through storerooms + bicycles + beer crates + other stuff do not matter much 😄

castle ruin

our place for a tasty lunch, guest hous alte post (old post office)

the market square

meow meow 🐱

more coming soon (in the rainy autumn weeks at the end of the year 2026?) or never ...

venice, italy, IT

2026-05-16T12:15:00.000+02:00

there would be sooo much to say about the unesco heritage island city of venice (venetia, venedig, benatky, ..), its past and former power and glory (it was not just the marco polo, you know?), its canals + architecture, its arts, its economy, its streets crowded by tourists who have to pay an entry day tax of 10 EUR, ... i've been to venice twice before in the analog pictures era, so this time i've the opportunity to upload few digital pictures here 😎

we have spent a mostly cold and rainy week in a camping site at the sand dunes in ca' savio at the very end of the long and slim jesolo peninsula. of course, we have enjoyed the possibility to visit venice, the pearl of the venetian lagoon, by 20-30 minutes boat trip through the venetian lagoon with and stop-over at the island of lido ...

san marco square, venice

venice, san marco square

~~~

lido is also an island in the venetian lagoon, IT ...

some next island called 'san servolo' in the venetian lagoon

...

the venice and all other may-2026 pictures are 'parked' here, maybe i'll later find some time to move them to a special albums for venice, burano, istra-croatia, austria, slovenia, bavaria etc. later, why not?

more coming soon (in the rainy autumn weeks at the end of the year 2026?) or never ...

burano, italy, IT

2026-05-14T11:48:00.000+02:00

we have spent a mostly cold and rainy week in a camping site at the sand dunes in ca' savio at the very end of the long and slim jesolo peninsula with our grandsons (+ daughter + her husband of course too) ...

... there was still plenty of nice nature at the end of the jesolo peninsula .. me most surprising and thus probaply nicest experience was the visit to the unesco heritage medieval picturesque island city of burano in the venetian lagoon (by boat, of course). for me even more special than the sooo popular venice (venetia, venedig, benatky) ...

a rainy day with unbelievably beautiful + fast changing skies and colors

the market square with its remarkable church

ca' savio at the very end of the long and slim jesolo peninsula:

punta sabbioni, a harbour village close to our camping site ca' savio

can you recognize the snowy alp hills on the horizon behind the venetin lagoon, my dears?

punta sabbioni

a fortress ruin in punta sabbioni a harbour village close to our

camping site ca' savio at the very end of the long and slim jesolo peninsula

there are many ruins at the jesolo peninsula, you see?

view from our bungalow over the empty tent meadow and at

the raindrops on the roof of our car in the ca' savio camping

the beach + sand dunes at our camping ca' savio

more coming soon (in the rainy autumn weeks at the end of the year 2026?) or never ...

premantura, istria, croatia, HR

2026-05-05T13:48:00.000+02:00

what a nice 1 week of mobile work in premantura, istria (istra, istrien) in crotia, HR. of course, it was not work only stay. in the evening we've had dinner at few of the nearby ports and there was a work free saturday + sunday as well.

our stops this time? lets provide both, the croatian and italian names as istria belonged to italy for many many years prior the WWI and WWII

premantura (promontore)
fazana (fasana)
rovinj (rovigno) ~ maybe the nicest city at the west coast in istria, if you asked me
koper (capo d'istria) in slovenia (SI) on our way to venice / italy

fazana (fasana)

our #1 restaurant in istria is stara konoba in fazana (tables on the left side)

sunset in fazana

rovinj (rovigno)

best of all wives? who knows? well, at least for me for sure 😉

more coming soon or in the rainy autumn weeks at the end of the year 2026 or never ...

predjama castle, slovenia, SI

2026-05-02T14:19:00.000+02:00

two of us at cave castle predjama close to postojna (adelsberg), slovenia, SI. well, i've never seen a castle like that before. there was just a front side outside the cave and the rest was build inside including escape & food supply ways through the cave system ...

predjama means in slovene 'in front of a cave' and sounds very similar to my native slovak. predjama castle (= predjamski grad, höhlenburg luegg, castel lueghi, casteło de predjama) is a renaissance castle first mentioned in 1274 with the german name luegg and was a gothic style castle then ...

it will most likely take many weeks and months till i'll update + enhance this blog, so enjoy our last visit to slovenia in 2023 first, will you?

predjama castle

fire place, style #1

fire place, style #2

when in slovenia (or croatia), then lasko beer🍻

two of us

petrol prices in EU's slovenia? 1,71€. lets compare it to the

sanctions & green ideology driven 2,24€ in germany 😓

more coming soon (in the rainy autumn weeks at the end of the year 2026?) or never ... well, i've just read this blog (10-2026). both, all needed insights and enough pictures to give you an impression abt that strange + beautiful place are contained, so there is no need to make this blog post any longer, my dears. just in case you really wanna to, here is the link to my google summer pictures collection with DE-PL-AT-SI-HR-IT-SK-CZ pictures ... i will most likely move few of them (at least venice + burano, italy?) to a separate foto album(s) later on ...

eof

lake notzinger weiher, BY

2026-04-26T23:14:00.062+02:00

what a nice day spent with our children and our 2 grandsons at the lake notzinger weiher close to notzing (erding, münchen, bavaria, BY)

the smaller lake notzinger weiher

the biggest out of the three notzinger lakes ~ großer notzinger weiher

a small chapel in nearby moosinning

parking + the castle jagdschlössl in nearby eichenried

few more pictures here.

more bavarian lakes here 😇